Awards celebrate metro Detroit’s best designs and professionals

Carly Callahan Bristol is the winner of the Brian Killian Rising Star Award for 2016.

Photo by Sean Work

Advertisement

METRO DETROIT — The glorious combination of modern and classic décor in the Max M. Fisher Music Center served as a glamorous setting for the 12th annual Detroit Home Design Awards.

“It is appropriate we are here in a music venue,” Megan Swoyer, Detroit Home editor and award host, said March 23 to a crowd of home industry professionals. “I believe all the winners here are virtuosos.”

The Detroit Home Design Awards solicits amateur and professionally designed entries for residential and commercial spaces. Entries are reviewed by a team of industry professionals and selected to receive honors in more than 70 categories.

“We launched this program 12 years ago,” said John Balardo, Detroit Home publisher, “as a testament to the builders, architects and designers in this region.”

The Detroit Home Design Awards are presented in partnership with the Michigan Design Center in Troy.

Award categories include a wide array of topics, ranging from overall architecture, landscaping and décor to details like millwork, use of lighting, window treatments and sustainable design, along with commercial design.

A Birmingham home constructed in the tradition of historic English country houses took the readers’ choice award for best overall home. VanBrouck and Associates Inc., with Luxe Homes Design and Build and Oliver Max Interiors, collected a prize for the house that sits on a narrow, in-town lot in Birmingham.

Interior designer Carly Callahan Bristol was named Rising Star for her work with Callahan Interiors. Bristol also won a 2016 Detroit Home Design Award in the screen room/sunroom category.

A 3,500-square-foot Metamora farmhouse — restored with a goal of returning the property to its original 1860s splendor — received a historic renovation/restoration award for William J. Thomas Studios. First prize for contemporary architecture up to 4,000 square feet went to AZD Architects for a 2,600-square-foot modern house that sits on a 50-foot-wide lot on Williams Lake.

Yarema took home first-, second- and third-place prizes in the flooring category with its traditional Russian inlaid floors. Walter Herz Interiors with Vogue Furniture received a millwork award for an art deco elevator foyer with a gold leaf, domed ceiling and wood panels hiding the elevator opening.

A panel of Detroit Home Design Award judges included designers and architects with a variety of backgrounds from around the country. Judges reviewed hundreds of entries and chose nearly 200 category winners. Detroit Home editors selected the Rising Star winner, and Detroit Home readers cast votes for their favorite overall home.

Design award guests enjoyed an elegant strolling dinner in the Max’s multilevel entrance hall with live music before winners were announced on the concert stage. In 2003, the music center opened with a restored and modernized Orchestra Hall and a modern 135,000-square-foot facility that includes a performance hall and education center.

“It is great to see all of you and your inspiring designs,” Swoyer said to the Home Design Award crowd. “We are throwing one great party tonight.”

For a list of Home Design Award winners, visit www.detroithomemag.com.